For the first time in the club’s history, FC United of Manchester will this season compete in the FA Youth Cup, with an away tie at Macclesfield Town on 11 September.

The FA Youth Cup is synonymous with Manchester United, as they have won the competition a record ten times. The tournament has been a platform into the professional game for many top players with George Best, Duncan Edwards, Bobby Charlton, Ryan Giggs, Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney all having played in an FA Youth Cup Final.

FC United first team manager, Karl Marginson said “The beauty of being a relatively new club gives us opportunities to create history. Our entry into the FA Youth Cup signifies a new chapter in our commitment to develop young players. It is a priority set out in our philosophy to promote the improvement of young footballers, both as players and as people, and myself and all the coaching staff throughout the club are 100% focused on our aims of helping them achieve their goals. These values are designed to strengthen our club and its future.”

FC United’s Youth Team, under the guidance of academy manager Paul Bright and head of youth coaching Chuks Akuneto, have been drawn in the Preliminary Round against Macclesfield Town Youth, with the game to be hosted at Macclesfield’s Moss Rose Ground on Thursday 11 September. The winners of the tie will play at home against Warrington Town in the week beginning 22 September.

Chuks Akuneto, head of youth coaching, added “It is an exciting time and a great occasion for our youth team players to test themselves in the most elite under-18s competition in England. The players have applied themselves really well during the hectic pre-season programme and the FA Youth Cup tie will give them the opportunity to put all of their hard work into practice.”

Gonna throw a random ground update picture in:

_________________2012idontfeardeath wrote: Nevermind. It's not like he's going to make the Juve starting 11. Spawny wrote: Tata Paul. Enjoy Juve's reserve team, but at least the weather will be nicer.

2013

Quote:

Manchester United fans look away now: Paul Pogba has been crowned the best young player in Europe.

A series of setbacks has postponed the opening of Manchester football team FC United's new £5.5m stadium.

The club, which is owned and run by its members, is building the new ground and community facility in Moston.

Called Broadhurst Park, club staff had initially hoped it would open in September, later postponing the estimated launch date to December.

Now further delays with the construction work mean the stadium may not be completed until February.

Manager Karl Marginson said: "It's like anything - there have been some snagging points.

"As far as I know there has been a little problem with the steel work. On site, we haven't got anywhere where you can store things, so we have to co-ordinate materials arriving. It's taking that little bit longer.

"I think some people get frustrated, but it's just one of those things. When the stadium does open it will be that little bit better."

FC United was formed in 2005 by Manchester United fans in protest at US businessman Malcolm Glazer's takeover.

Many fans at Old Trafford were unhappy with the move as it took the club heavily into debt.

The 4,440-capacity stadium is being part funded by club members and supporters via a community share issue, alongside donations and grants.

Club staff said the plans recently prompted their highest ever season ticket sales.

Matches are currently held at Ashton-under-Lyne club Curzon Ashton's Tameside Stadium.

Mr Marginson said he hoped the stadium would be in use by mid-February.

Not sure if you're aware of the fan protests last night that saw many of the FC fans stay out of the ground for the first half.

They were forced to move their FA cup match which was a sell out for TV to a Monday night.

As I'm sure you're all aware all the FC United players are semi pro's and therefore have jobs some of the players had already done a full days work before playing a proffessional team. Is that really fair?

Also, the kick off time of 8pm on a Monday Night makes it tough for people with young kids as do you really want to keep a youngster up until 10/11pm on a Monday Night when they have school the next day.

They also had to raise ticket prices to the minimum price for adults set by the FA in their rules to £10 to their credit the club provided a £1 drinks/ticket voucher to all home and away fans as they only normally charge £9 for a home fixture. Not sure why the FA insist on a minimum ticket price clubs should be free to charge what they want as long as they both agree to any discounting due to the way the gate is split in the FA Cup both clubs have to agree to discount ticket prices for the fixture.

You could also clearly hear F*ck the FA and BT sport chants throughout the game and it got so bad at the end BT Sport actually started playing background noise alongside the commentary to try and drown in out.

Fair play the FCUM boys for standing up to the powers that be and making a point Newcastle fans should've boycotted that game vs Bournemouth putting their longest away trip as a 12.45 saturday lunch time game is madness. Just shows how little the TV companies think of the fans when they move matches around.

The entire board of FC United of Manchester – the breakaway club set up by Manchester United supporters after the Glazer family’s takeover at Old Trafford – has offered to resign after calling an EGM to deal with the most turbulent period in the club’s short history.

The club have also released a statement to “recognise the unrest and upset felt by many members” after a period of infighting that is now likely to see the election of a new board on 15 May.

Disharmony at FC United of Manchester intensifies as board member quits“The board has unanimously agreed that it is in the best interests of the club to call an Extraordinary General Meeting as soon as is possible,” the statement read.

“At the EGM all remaining board members will either stand down permanently or stand down and seek re-election. The EGM will elect a new board for the club. This will provide members with the opportunity to vote for a newly formed board with a fresh mandate to represent the club’s best interests and best serve the club going forward.”

The Guardian reported on 31 March how a series of divisions behind the scenes at the club had already led to legal action, resignations, protests and gagging orders. Since then Adam Brown, one of the driving forces behind the club since its formation in 2005, has resigned because of what he described as “an orchestrated campaign” against the regime.

Brown’s departure, having been facing a vote of no confidence, followed the decision of Andy Walsh, the general manager, to stand down amid criticisms from parts of the fanbase that the club have abandoned their founding principles and were not being run as members wanted.

FC United moved into their £6.3m Broadhurst Park stadium at the start of the season and have climbed to the National League North, the sixth tier of English football, with crowds topping 4,000 for some games and realistic ambitions to become the third Manchester club in the top four divisions.

However, what should have been a momentous year is ending in acrimony with the current board facing what is bordering on mutiny. Another board member, Alison Watt, resigned at the same time as Brown and in their latest statement the club also confirm that Richard Searle is standing down.

The club have also apologised to their members about the way a general meeting was abandoned on Sunday because of “a number of issues … relating to the venue and the registration of proxies and postal ballots that were unsatisfactory and fell below the standards that members expect.

“The board apologises to all those members who attended Sunday’s meeting, many of whom had travelled long distances, for the evident shortcomings experienced and shares their sense of frustration at the inability to conduct the meeting as planned.”

The statement added: “Board members recognise the unrest and upset felt by many members currently and are collectively committed to ensuring that the co-owners of FC United of Manchester can find a way through the challenges we face at this stage of our history.”

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